This pumpkin monkey bread is stuffed with molten cream cheese, covered in buttery, sticky toffee and caramel sauce, and packed with pumpkin spice flavor. It uses an easy, no knead homemade pumpkin dough that is so low fuss and creates the perfect, fluffy bite that isn't dry at all. Each piece of monkey bread separates easily and is filled with that irresistible cream cheese filling. I've included instructions on how to make overnight monkey bread so that you can have steaming, gooey, freshly baked monkey bread in the morning with very little prep time.
This pumpkin bread is perfect to make for brunch during fall and the holidays because it's just too good. Gooey, fluffy, spiced, and sweet! Perfect with a cup of hot coffee or a soothing pumpkin spice chai latte.
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Why you'll LOVE this recipe
- Pumpkin flavor: Pumpkin puree goes into the dough and the pieces are rolled in a pumpkin spice sugar for maximum pumpkin spice flavor.
- Gooey, cream cheese filling: An easy, three ingredient cream cheese filling makes the most delicious, rich filling where each bite is stuffed.
- Ultra gooey: Using my cinnamon roll technique where cream is poured over the monkey bread gives this monkey bread the most gooey, delightful sauce and keeps it extra soft and fluffy after baking.
- Easy to pull apart: Compared to some versions where the pieces stick together very well and are hard to pull apart, this version involves coating each piece liberally in sugar and butter which creates easy to pull apart pieces.
- From scratch, homemade monkey bread: Easy to make, no knead pumpkin bread dough makes the most perfect from scratch monkey bread.
📝 Key ingredients
Read through for all the tips you will need for success!
Full steps and ingredients in recipe card below.
Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix: A classic mix of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, used to make pumpkin pie. You can purchase a premade mix from the store or make it at home using your existing spices with my pumpkin pie spice mix recipe.
Cream Cheese: Full fat brick style cream cheese will give you the best, creamiest result. You can use low fat cream cheese if you prefer. This isn't a cheesecake recipe so it's ok to use low fat cream cheese because you don't need it to set.
Sour cream: A touch of sour cream inside the cream cheese filling ensures that the filling remains gooey and creamy even after baking.
Active dry yeast: If you use instant yeast then you don't need to dissolve it into the water. Just check the expiry date to make sure it isn't expired and mix it directly into the dough. Make sure you add the warm water into the dough as well before mixing it all together.
Pumpkin puree: Added to the dough for a beautiful orange color and a pumpkin flavor.
All purpose flour: Weigh the flour to get the most accurate results. If you don’t have a scale, measure properly by stirring the bag and spooning gently into a measuring cup. Scrape the excess off the top with the flat edge off a knife without packing it into the cup.
Butter: Unsalted softened butter in the dough makes it extra soft and gives it a nice buttery flavor. I also melted some butter for dipping the monkey bread balls before rolling in sugar to create an extra gooey exterior.
Heavy whipping cream: 35% cream gets poured over the monkey bread before placing it into the oven. The cream steams the monkey bread making it extra fluffy and soft. Once baked, it mixes with the sugar to create a beautiful toffee sauce.
Salted caramel sauce: I made a batch of salted caramel sauce to drizzle on top of the pumpkin monkey bread after baking. You could use store-bought caramel sauce or make your own caramel sauce. Alternatively, skip this step because the monkey bread comes out extra gooey even without drizzling caramel sauce on top.
Brown sugar: Adds caramelized, warm molasses notes to the monkey bread. I prefer to combine it alongside with granulated sugar for the monkey bread coating because when I tested the recipe using only brown sugar, it turned out too dark and not as gooey.
Pumpkin pie spice: A spice blend that is typically used in pumpkin pie to complement the pumpkin. You can make your own pumpkin spice or substitute it with cinnamon if you can’t find any of the ingredients.
👩🍳 How to make pumpkin monkey bread
Step 1 [you can do this the day/night before]: Mix softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and sour cream together.
Pipe two teaspoon sized dollops of cream cheese onto the parchment paper (make sure you have 32). Freeze until solid.
Step 2: In a small bowl, combine warm water, ½ teaspoon granulated sugar, and active dry yeast. Stir to dissolve the yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes. If it doesn't foam, then it expired and you should try a different packet of yeast.
Step 3: Pour the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the brown sugar, butter, egg, pumpkin puree, salt, vanilla extract, and warm milk. Add the dissolved yeast mixture.
Use a Danish whisk or a large spoon to mix the dough together.
Step 4: Cover the dough with a towel and place it in a warm spot to double in size. Make sure that you don't exceed 113°F (45°C) because the yeast will die off. This will take 20-30 minutes.
Step 5: Once doubled, use your fingers to lift up the edges of the dough and fold it over the rest of the dough. Do this about 6 times, or as many times as needed until the dough is deflated and looks smoother.
Step 6: Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half. Cut each half into approximately sixteen pieces. To achieve this, I cut each half in half again, and cut each half into eight pieces. This should get you 32 pieces.
Step 7: Flatten a piece of dough and place a frozen cream cheese filling into the center. Carefully pull the dough over and pinch the seams to seal the filling inside. Do this for the rest of the dough.
Step 8: Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, and pumpkin spice in a separate bowl. Then, melt the butter in a separate bowl.
Butter the inside of a bundt pan. Sprinkle the inside with about two teaspoons of the sugar mixture.
Step 9: Dip each monkey bread ball into the melted butter and then roll it in the sugar mixture. Place each piece into the bundt pan. Repeat until you don't have any more dough left.
Step 10: Pour the remaining butter onto the dough inside the bundt pan.
If you're making this overnight to bake the next morning, wrap the bundt pan tightly and refrigerate for up to 10 hours.
Preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C). Let the dough rise inside the bundt pan while the oven preheats.
Step 11: Pour the cream over the dough and bake for 25 minutes. The monkey bread is ready when you see syrup bubbling on the edges of the pan and when you push down on a piece of monkey bread, it springs back up.
Step 12: Let the pumpkin monkey bread cool for 10 minutes inside the pan. Then, place a large plate upside down on top and flip the bundt pan over with the plate. Use oven mits!
Step 13: Give the top of the pan a few taps to release.
Step 14: Drizzle the top with caramel sauce and let it cool until it is cool enough to touch so that you don't burn your fingers. Pull monkey bread pieces apart with your fingers and enjoy!
✔️ Expert monkey bread tips
- Freeze the cream cheese filling: Working with fully frozen filling is so much easier than slightly defrosted because it gets very messy. Keep half of the filling in the freezer and take it out as you need it. This ensures that it stays frozen and doesn't defrost on you.
- Weigh the flour and use a tiny amount of flour for dusting your work surface: Adding too much flour results in a dense monkey bread that won't be very fluffy.
- Stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together: Initially you want to mix the dough until it starts to look cohesive. You don't need to knead it until it's smooth or it can turn out quite tough and dry.
- Cool the monkey bread for only 10 minutes before flipping it over: Just like a bundt cake, you don't want the monkey bread to cool inside the pan completely or else it will stick.
🥄 How to make overnight monkey bread and storage
Monkey bread is best served warm. To make it ahead of time, once all of the pieces are covered in sugar and inside the bundt pan, you can wrap it tightly and refrigerate it overnight (for up to 10 hours). Then remove it from the fridge while you preheat the oven, pour the cream over the top, and bake as usual.
If you have any leftovers, place them in an airtight bag or container and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Reheat the leftovers before eating so that the monkey bread becomes soft and gooey again.
📖 Recipe FAQs
Yes, but not using this recipe as making gluten free yeasted dough is quite tricky. I recommend finding a recipe that has been developed to be gluten free. You can use my cream cheese filling to stuff each monkey bread ball if you also want it to be stuffed.
A warm, sunny windowsill works great for letting dough rise. If that's not available, I like to turn the oven on the lowest heat setting and let it heat for one minute (set a timer or else the oven will be too hot and will cook the yeast!). Then I turn the oven off I pop the bowl of dough inside and let it rise. Make sure that the oven temperature doesn't exceed 113°F (45°C). Typically my oven doesn't get that hot but if I notice that it feels a little hot then I leave the door open for a minute to let it cool down some more.
Yes you can. You may need to add a few more minutes onto the bake time. Bundt pans have a hole in the center to allow for better heat distribution and faster bake times.
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📖 Recipe
Pumpkin Monkey Bread Stuffed with Cream Cheese
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Stuffing
- 8 oz cream cheese 1 block, softened
- 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup sour cream
Pumpkin Monkey Bread Dough
- ¼ cup warm water
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast 4 grams
- 3 cups all purpose flour 360g
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup butter softened
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup milk warm
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin spice mix
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce for drizzling on top
Instructions
Monkey Bread Cream Cheese Filling
- In a medium bowl, combine softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and sour cream. Mix together with an electric mixer briefly until combined.8 oz cream cheese, 6 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract, ¼ cup sour cream
- Transfer the mixture into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the tip cut off. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and pipe two teaspoon sized dollops of cream cheese onto the parchment paper. Make sure that you have around 32 dollops. Place the baking sheet flat into the freezer to freeze solid while you make the dough. You can also do this the day or night before.
Pumpkin Monkey Bread Dough
- In a small bowl, combine warm water, ½ teaspoon granulated sugar, and active dry yeast. Stir to dissolve the yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes. If it foams on top, then it is good to use. If it doesn't foam, then it expired and you should try a different packet of yeast.¼ cup warm water, ½ teaspoon granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- Pour the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Add the brown sugar, butter, egg, pumpkin puree, salt, vanilla extract, and warm milk. Then add the dissolved yeast mixture.3 cups all purpose flour, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, ¼ cup butter, 1 large egg, ½ cup pumpkin puree, ¼ teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, ¼ cup milk
- Use a danish whisk or a large spoon to mix the dough together, starting with breaking up the wet ingredients in the middle. Mix together until a dough forms.
- Cover the dough with a towel and place it in a warm spot to rise. A sunny windowsill works great! I like turning on my oven to the lowest setting for 1 minute then turning it off and placing the dough inside. Make sure that you don't exceed 113°F (45°C) because that is the temperature at which yeast starts to die off. You want the dough to rise for about 20-30 minutes, until it doubles in size.
- Once doubled, use your fingers to lift up the edges of the dough and fold it over the rest of the dough. Do this about 6 times, or as many times as needed until the dough is deflated and looks smoother.
- Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half. Cut each half into approximately sixteen pieces. To achieve this, I cut each half in half again, and cut each half into eight pieces.
- Remove the cream cheese filling from the freezer. Flatten a piece of dough and place a cream cheese filling into the center. Carefully pull the dough over and pinch the seams to seal the filling inside. Do this until you run out of dough.
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
- In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, and pumpkin spice mixture. Melt the butter in a separate medium bowl.½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons pumpkin spice mix, ½ cup unsalted butter
- Butter the inside of a bundt pan. Sprinkle the inside with about two teaspoons of the sugar mixture.
- Dip each monkey bread ball into the melted butter and then roll it around in the sugar mixture. Place each piece into the bundt pan. Repeat until you don't have any more dough left.
- Pour the remaining butter onto the dough inside the bundt pan. If you're making this overnight to bake the next morning, wrap the bundt pan tightly and refrigerate for up to 10 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C). Let the dough rise at room temperature inside the bundt pan while the oven preheats.
- Once the oven is preheated, pour the cream over the dough and bake for 25 minutes. The monkey bread is ready when you see syrup bubbling on the edges of the pan and when you push down on a piece of monkey bread, it springs back up. It will also be golden brown on top.½ cup heavy whipping cream
- Let the pumpkin monkey bread cool for 10 minutes inside the pan. Then, place a large plate upside down on top and flip the bundt pan over with the plate. Give the top of the pan a few taps to release.
- Drizzle the top with caramel sauce and let it cool until it is cool enough to touch so that you don't burn your fingers. Pull the monkey bread pieces apart with your fingers and enjoy!¼ cup salted caramel sauce
Notes
- Freeze the cream cheese filling for easier filling
- Weigh the flour and use a tiny amount of flour for dusting your work surface to ensure a soft, moist dough
- Stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together, this is a no knead recipe
- Cool the monkey bread for only 10 minutes before flipping it over to prevent it from sticking to the pan
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